The present work is an analytical account of classical Sanskrit literature in its historical perspective. It is divided into six books, containing several chapters, each dealing with a particular branch of Sanskrit learning. The work gives an elaborate account of Ramayana, Mahabharata and puranas, with all their recensions, editions and commentaries. The vast expanse of classical Sanskrit literature has been arranged on the model of standard works of foreign literature. The main classes are three- Sravyakvya, Drsyakvya and Sahitya. All topics are introduced by an exposition of the rhetorical definitions and theorizations and treated from their traceable beginnings, which to some extent are traditional and theological.
The work is full of references; the footnotes refer to a variety of sources, legendary, inscriptional, numismatic, architectural and literary. The writer has exploited all the relevant material of the journals, catalogues, annals, reports and other documents in discussing the vexed problems of the date, place, genealogy of the authors and the literary tendencies of their compositions. His methodology of literary criticism is rationalistic and bears the stamp of the modern scientific age. The elaborate index, the critical introduction, the exhaustive bibliography, the list of abbreviations, the table of transliteration and a supplement are the most useful additions to this interesting and instructive work of literary history.
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